You know a project is going to be a mess when you are hired to solve a problem. This time it was ethernet not working. I started on the problem the next day getting hardware and details, but before the meeting was done the objective changed.

This is the classic state of panic that occurs in people when things are not going "right." They have so many problems that have built up they do not know which one to start on first.

Most of the time these projects are in triage mode, that is there is no schedule, not plans but rather everyone on deck and working. The hope is with enough people who sort of know what to do they will get things done. However the critical mistake best summarized as:

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of think we used when we created them." - Albert Einstein

Basically, the all hands on deck approach using the same people that got you into the need for all hands on deck will not get you of out it. The best thing you can do when you have a project running off the rails like this is to stop. Yes STOP now! What you are doing is not working and as such you need to do something different. This might mean hiring better engineers, doing some planning, etc. Either way it means stop, reflect and evaluate.